A26959:500
More proofs of infants church-membership and consequently their right to baptism, or, A second defence of our infant rights and mercies in three parts ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for N. Simmons and J. Robinson, 1675
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Mr. T. 5. If visible Church-membership be antecedent to the interest a person hath in the Covenant, then the Covenant is not the cause of it. But &c. Ergo —
Answ. The word [Interest] may signify the Interest that fallen mankind hath in the Covenant as conditional antecedent to mans consent: And thus I suppose neither you nor I here speak of it. But if by my Interest you mean, that I am the person to whom the Covenant giveth a present Right to its benefits, I answer, Some benefits follow long after: but when I consent, then I am the person to whom the Covenant giveth a present Right to union with Christ, in the first instant and consequently with his Church or body in the second: so that here is no such thing as your feigned membership before Covenant interest, that is, before a Right to that Relation by Gods donation. And as […] former dream that this is not a Right an• moral effect but a physical, it was your self and not I that subjected you to the shame of such an assertion, which I will no more confute.
Answ. The word [Interest] may signifie the Interest that fallen mankind hath in the Covenant as conditional antecedent to mans consent: And thus I suppose neither you nor I here speak of it. But if by my Interest you mean, that I am the person to whom the Covenant giveth a present Right to its benefits, I answer, Some benefits follow long after: but when I consent, then I am the person to whom the Covenant giveth a present Right to union with Christ, in the first instant and consequently with his Church or body in the second: so that here is no such thing as your feigned membership before Covenant interest, that is, before a Right to that Relation by Gods donation. And as 〈…〉 former dream that this is not a Right an• moral effect but a physical, it was your self and not I that subjected you to the shame of such an assertion, which I will no more confute.
Mr. T. 6. If the Covenant &c. be the only […] bought Orphans of Turks, ⟨p. 176⟩wholly at our dispose, are no visible members, &c.
Mr. T. 6. If the Covenant &c. be the only 〈…〉 bought Orphans of Turks, ⟨p. 176⟩wholly at our dispose, are no visible members, &c.
Answ. No friend of truth will run into the dark with a controversy, and argue à minus notis. Many judicious Divines think that Gods Covenant with Abraham's Infants born in his house, proveth that two things go to make up the capacity of an Infant for baptism: 1. That he be his own and at his dispose who offereth him to God. 2. That he be offered or dedicated by a Consenting Owner. Now their reason is because if they be our own, we have the dispose of them for their good, and our wills are theirs. But the case is most clear about those that by Generation are our own, and darker about those that are by Adoption or purchase our own. Now here you do nothing but deny the darker (which you cannot disprove) and thence the plainer which we have fully proved.
Answ. No friend of truth will run into the dark with a controversie, and argue à minus notis. Many judicious Divines think that Gods Covenant with Abrahams Infants born in his house, proveth that two things go to make up the capacity of an Infant for baptism: 1. That he be his own and at his dispose who offereth him to God. 2. That he be offered or dedicated by a Consenting Owner. Now their reason is because if they be our own, we have the dispose of them for their good, and our wills are theirs. But the case is most clear about those that by Generation are our own, and darker about those that are by Adoption or purchase our own. Now here you do nothing but deny the darker (which you cannot disprove) and thence the plainer which we have fully proved.
Mr. T. 7. If the Covenant o• Law with the Parents actual faith without profession, make not the Parent a visible Church-member, neither doth it the child. But — Ergo.
Answ. I grant both major and minor: He that is not known to have faith, is not a visible adult member: And he that is not known to be the (justly reputed) child of a professed believer, is […] an Infant Church-member. And what's this […] our controversy? Heart consent maketh a mystical or invisible Christian and member, and Professed belief (that is, Believing Consent) maketh a visible member of the parent, and is necessary to the visible membership of the child: If I may call that Making them, ⟨p. 177⟩which is but the Disposition of the material Receptive constitutive cause. It's pity we should have need to talk at this rate.
Answ. I grant both major and minor: He that is not known to have faith, is not a visible adult member: And he that is not known to be the (justly reputed) child of a professed believer, is 〈…〉 an Infant Church-member. And what's this 〈…〉 our controversie? Heart consent maketh a mystical or invisible Christian and member, and Professed belief (that is, Believing Consent) maketh a visible member of the parent, and is necessary to the visible membership of the child: If I may call that Making them, ⟨p. 177⟩which is but the Disposition of the material Receptive constitutive cause. It's pitty we should have need to talk at this rate.
Mr. T. 8. If persons are visible Church-members and not by the Covenant of Grace, then it is not true that Christ by his Law or Covenant is the sole efficient of visible Church-membership. The minor is proved in Judas and hypocrites.
Answ. 1. They are not the sole efficient; Gods Love and mercy also is efficient.
2. You profess your self that the name [Christian and Church-member] are equivocal as to the sincere and the hypocrites: If they be not the same things, no wonder if they have not the same causes. That Donation or Covenant may be the sole nearest Instrumental efficient of True membership, and yet not of Equivocal.
3. God who is our Paternal Beneficent Ruler doth give some of his benefits by his Law or Covenant absolutely and antecedently to mans conditions, and some consequently as Rewards: And Gods Laws having first a Preceptive part, as well as a Donative or Premiant, a Right may accrue in foro ecclesiae to an hypocrite from that precept: As e. g. God antecedently doth by his Covenant give the world an Impunity as to the punishment of Drowning it: And so by his common Law of Grace he giveth the world many common mercies by a Redeemer, and perhaps many by that you call a physical act, immediately. And by his Law he (having given a conditional pardon and life to all) commandeth his Ministers to offer it, and All men to Accept it, ⟨p. 178⟩and his Ministers to judge by mens profession, and to use professed Accepters as real; because we cannot see the heart. This being so, when the hypocrite professeth his consent, the Law obligeth the Minister and Church to receive it, by which in foro ecclesiae he hath a right to his Church station. And Christ himself called Judas, and sent him out to Preach, and his mandates were as Laws. So that the Right that an hypocrite hath, he hath by the Law which obligeth the Church to use him as a true believer, upon his professing to be such. None of this can be denied. But Judas was called immediately by Christ himself; and his [follow me] was a precept which gave him a Right to his Relation.
3. God who is our Paternal Beneficient Ruler doth give some of his benefits by his Law or Covenant absolutely and antecedently to mans conditions, and some consequently as Rewards: And Gods Laws having first a Preceptive part, as well as a Donative or Premiant, a Right may accrue in foro ecclesiae to an hypocrite from that precept: As e. g. God antecedently doth by his Covenant give the world an Impunity as to the punishment of Drowning it: And so by his common Law of Grace he giveth the world many common mercies by a Redeemer, and perhaps many by that you call a physical act, immediately. And by his Law he (having given a conditional pardon and life to all) commandeth his Ministers to offer it, and All men to Accept it, ⟨p. 178⟩and his Ministers to judge by mens profession, and to use professed Accepters as real; because we cannot see the heart. This being so, when the hypocrite professeth his consent, the Law obligeth the Minister and Church to receive it, by which in foro ecclesiae he hath a right to his Church station. And Christ himself called Judas, and sent him out to Preach, and his mandates were as Laws. So that the Right that an hypocrite hath, he hath by the Law which obligeth the Church to use him as a true believer, upon his professing to be such. None of this can be denyed. But Judas was called immediately by Christ himself; and his [follow me] was a precept which gave him a Right to his Relation.
Mr. T. 9. If Infants are visible members by the Covenant on Condition that the Parents &c. then either the next Parents or in any generation precedent &c.
Answ. The next Parents that are Owners of the child, and have the trust and power of disposing of him or covenanting for him: And the Reason is, because they have 1. That Propriety, and 2. That trust and power.
Mr. T. 10. If an Infants visible Church-membership be by the Covenant on the Parents actual believing, and not a bare profession, then it is a thing that cannot be known, &c.
Answ. I pity Readers that must be troubled with such kind of talk. 1. The Right of the child is upon [the Believing Parents dedication of that child to God by consenting that he be in the mutual Covenant.]
Answ. I pitty Readers that must be troubled with such kind of talk. 1. The Right of the child is upon [the Believing Parents dedication of that child to God by consenting that he be in the mutual Covenant.]
2. Heart consent known only to God giveth no Right coram ecclesia, known to men, but only to such mercy as God who only knoweth it, giveth without the Churches judgement.
3. Believing and profession qualify for Right in the Judgement both of God and of the Church.
3. Believing and profession qualifie for Right in the Judgement both of God and of the Church.
